BLACK SABBATH BOOK DUE

A new book on Black Sabbath is due soon. This book is about the history of the band from 1979-1997, and is entitled "Black Sabbath: Never Say Die! 1979-1997". Written by Garry Sharpe-Young, this book will shed some light on the lesser known portions of the band’s history. Judging from the book he put out last year on the history of the Ozzy Osbourne band, this shold be an outstanding book. Once I have some concrete details on it, I’ll pass them along. In the meantime, here’s a news blurb I got from Garry about it…

The book ‘Black Sabbath: Never Say Die! 1979-1997’ is now at the publishers. As soon as we receive a firm publication date I’ll get it out to you.
This book has been an absolute pleasure to write. Many of those I spoke to seemed thankful that someone, at long last, was documenting this vital period of Sabbath history in an accurate manner. All told I’m estimating about 400 pages including 50 plus exclusive, never seen before photographs from private sources. Some of these photos are unbelievable, capturing moments from previously mysterious times in the band. Pictures onstage, backstage and in the studio.

As with my Ozzy book, the Sabbath history is traced in great detail told, in the main, by the band members themselves. A huge catalogue of mysteries was solved during the detective work for this book believe me!

Each album, tour, line-up and near line-ups are documented thoroughly. As far as possible I have tried to get the exact details of the recording and song-writing processes for each album. Who wrote what and who recorded what. The stories behind the songs, how and why the albums got both their titles and their artwork, which singers were suggested for the frontman role, which singers didn’t make it through auditions. There is a plethora of song titles you won’t recognise and some surprises on the band members front too.

Interviewed exclusively for the book and at great length (quite a few of these discussions took a number of weeks) are Geoff Nicholls, Tony Martin, Neil Murray, Ian Gillan, Bobby Rondinelli, David Donato, Ronnie James Dio, Glenn Hughes, Eric Singer, David Spitz, Bob Daisley, Jo Burt, Rob Halford, Terry Chimes, Jeff Fenholt, Vinnie Appice and others. All of these people really opened up to me and the detail just poured out… I also had the great pleasure of conducting numerous interviews with the late and very great Cozy Powell and spoke to Ray Gillen just before his last ever gig with Sabbath at Nottingham Concert Hall. Ray’s interview is printed in full. Both Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were also interviewed at various times over the years. On top of this I spoke to many Sabbath support acts including Alvin Lee.

I have done my very best to satisfy the curiousity of Sabbath fans with this book, answering a lot of the questions I have seen asked over the years.

I shall leave you with this thought. Writing this book has proven to me beyond all doubt that Tony Iommi is the man! My admiration for his talent and sheer tenacity increased immeasurably during the process.

By the way, we’ve had a lot of emails from the USA about buying the ‘Ozzy Osbourne -Story Of The Ozzy Osbourne band’ book. It is available in the USA. For some reason it’s not showing on Amazon yet but is being distributed by Cleopatra Records.